The debate over whether Hinckley is in the North or the South looks set to rage on in the wake of a North/South project by academics.

Boffins at Sheffield University attempted to draw the dividing line between the rugged north and softer south and split Hinckley and Bosworth in two.

Based on their efforts Hinckley town centre lies firmly in the red-half of the country - The North.

But the line splits communities in two as Wolvey, Sapcote, Sharnford and Stoney Stanton all fall into the southern blue half.

Drawn up as part of an exhibition called “Myth of the North” its creators admit the grey areas of the Midlands provides something of a problem.

Danny Dorling, former professor of geography at Sheffield University said: “The country is best typified as being divided regionally between the north and the south.

“Ideas of a midlands region add more confusion than light. The closer you look at it the more detail you see.

“It weaves between fields and houses.

“That such an exact line can be drawn is, of course, a fiction but it is also fair to say that moving from North to South is not that gradual an experience.”

The University of Sheffield's North/South divide. Map by University of Sheffield

While the dividing line between North and South might be tricky to establish in real life, Danny said the differences on either side of the University’s dividing line are real and impact upon lives.

He went on: “Numerous facts of life divide the North from the South – there is a missing year of life expectancy north of this line.

“Children south of the line are much more likely to attend Russell group universities for those that do go to University (and they often go to the North to study!), a house price cliff now runs along much of the line, and, on the voting map, the line still often separates red from blue.

“In terms of life chances the only line within another European country that is comparable to the North-South divide is that which used to separate East and West Germany.

“This is found not just in terms of relative differences in wealth either side of the line, but most importantly in terms of health where some of the extremes of Europe are now found within this one divided island of Britain.”